The Fifth District Appellate Court reversed St. Clair County Circuit Judge Andrew Gleeson’s order denying a defendant’s motion to compel arbitration, noting that the parties did not provide enough information and further discovery is needed to make an appropriate decision.

Defendant Santander Consumer USA Inc.’s motion to compel arbitration, involving a man’s case alleging he did not receive the title to his vehicle as promised, is remanded to the St. Clair County Circuit Court for a third hearing following additional discovery.

Justice Judy Cates delivered the opinion on Jan. 22 with justices S. Gene Schwarm and James Moore concurring.

According to the opinion, plaintiff Franklin Sturgill executed a retail sales installment contract with Tri Ford Mercury, Inc., on May 12, 2006, to buy a Ford F-150 pickup truck for $19,037.

Sturgill agreed to make payments of $433.65 per month for six years at an interest rate of 17.95 percent.

The contract was for June 2006 until June 2012.

Tri Ford Mercury assigned all of its rights, title and interest in Sturgill’s purchase to Triad Financial Corporation.

In June 2009, Triad agreed to extend over-due payments on the plaintiff’s contract. In exchange, Sturgill agreed to release Triad from any and all claims that may have accrued under the installment contract. Included in the Extension Agreement between the parties was an arbitration clause.

Then in September 2009, Santander entered into an Interest Purchase Agreement with Triad Financial Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, Triad Financial Corporation, which did not contain an arbitration clause.

Sturgill was not a signatory to the Interest Purchase Agreement and had nothing to do with the transfer of the interests set forth in that agreement, but he began making his payments to Santander instead of Triad.

In June 2013, Sturgill and Santander reached an agreement to settle the plaintiff’s installment contract for less than the amount originally owed. Santander provided a letter addressed to Sturgill titled “Settled in Full Letter.”

Santander stated that Sturgill’s title would be released in June 2013. However, when the title didn’t come, Sturgill sent the defendant a letter requesting his title the next month.

Nothing in the record shows that Santander responded to the letter.

By August 2013, Sturgill filed a one-count putative class action complaint against Santander in the St. Clair County Circuit Court. He sought a statutory award of $150 for himself and each class member, plus attorney’s fees and costs.

In October 2013, Santander filed a motion to compel individual arbitration and to dismiss or stay the judicial proceedings. Sturgill objected.

A hearing was held before the trial court in December 2013, where the court agreed that the central issue was whether an enforceable arbitration clause existed between the parties.

The court denied Santander’s motion to compel arbitration without prejudice but indicated that the defendant could raise its motion again after more discovery.

Santander filed a renewed motion to compel in January 2014, but did not appear to conduct additional discovery.

Sturgill objected a second time in February 2014, arguing that he never agreed to arbitrate any dispute with Santander and that there was no valid arbitration agreement in any contract with the defendant.

On July 11, 2014, Gleeson issued an order denying the defendant’s motion. Santander appealed.

When addressing the issues at hand, the appellate court noted that simply denying Santander’s renewed motion to compel arbitration without providing an explanation “leaves this court without any basis for understanding the trial court’s reasons for its ruling.”

“In other words, the court has not substantiated the existence or truth of any fact that would allow for the denial of the motion. Because there was no substantive disposition of the multitude of issues raised by Santander’s renewed motion to compel arbitration, we cannot say that there was a sufficient showing to sustain the trial court’s order denying the motion to compel arbitration,” Cates wrote.

“Accordingly, we must reverse the order and remand the case to the trial court with instructions to proceed summarily, to resolve those issues that can properly be decided by the court under the [Federal Arbitration Act], and to render a disposition with some explanation or substantiation of the facts or rules of law that allow for the order entered,” she continued.

Cates wrote that the case is complex and requires more information.

“In these types of cases, the trial court is at a significant disadvantage when the parties do not clearly define the issues.

“On the two occasions when the court heard arguments in this case, the court indicated to the parties that it did not have sufficient information, that certain documents had been submitted in a format that was incapable of being read, and that further discovery should be conducted.

“The record reveals, however, that no additional discovery was conducted to further define the issues, and no evidentiary basis was offered for many of the contractual issues and defenses raised, thus leaving the court without the clarity it had requested,” Cates wrote.

As a result, the appellate court remanded the case for more discovery and a third hearing.

Shari Murphy of The Law Offices of Shari Murphy in Wood River represents the plaintiff

Michael Dahlen of Feirich, Mager, Green & Ryan in Carbondale and Michael Richman of Henry Pietrkowski, Reed & Smith in Chicago represent the defendant

SPRINGFIELD – As former state representative Frank Mautino advances to Illinois Auditor General, he leaves behind campaign disclosure reports likely to raise questions for any auditor.

His reports for the last two election cycles, 2011 through 2014, show extravagant spending without much apparent purpose.

He often concealed identities of those who ultimately received his expenditures, by identifying his bank or campaign workers as recipients.

Mautino, a Democrat, served 24 years as state representative of the 76th District.

According to records at the State Board of Elections, campaign worker Patty Maunu received $24,850 in four years for expenses of meetings, and campaign worker Pat Lewis received $16,097.12 in two years.

Spring Valley City Bank received expenditures for four meetings in Chicago and for payments to canvassers and other workers.

State campaign law requires explanation of expenditures made through banks or individuals, but Mautino did not explain.

His campaign spent more than $29,000 at the restaurants he did identify, averaging about $20 a day.

Mautino ran annual golf outings that cost more than $20,000 each.

He paid Happy’s Super Service station in Spring Valley thousands of dollars at a time, several times a year, to repair a vehicle that his campaign committee insured but didn’t own.

Mautino’s bills there ran to $113,180.19, all for gas and repairs.

He spent $7,266 to insure the vehicle, plus more than $5,000 for repairs and tires at shops other than Happy’s.

In all, the vehicle cost the campaign about $86 a day.

He paid more for good will than for yard signs, saturating his Illinois River district with donations to schools, sports teams, churches and charities.

State campaign law doesn’t prohibit donations to charity, but it prohibits any expenditure clearly in excess of whatever a campaign receives in exchange.

In 2011, the campaign donated $3,500 to Oglesby Fire and River Rescue, $500 each to St. Margaret’s Hospital and a festival in LaSalle, and $3,325 to others.

In 2012, the campaign donated $6,000 to Save Lake DePue, $1,000 to a food pantry, and $500 each to the festival in LaSalle and a little league.

The campaign gave more than $5,084.77 to others, including direct donations of $600 and $200 to two individuals.

Mautino won the election in 2012, with 63 percent.

In 2013, the campaign donated $2,500 to a baseball league, $1,825 to a softball league, $605 to another softball league, $500 each to a little league and the LaSalle festival, and $4,455 to others.

In 2014, the campaign donated $3,200 to Illinois Valley Ice, $870.72 for a raffle at Holy Family Church, $500 each to a little league, a senior league, the LaSalle festival, and Rips for Rob, and $3,375 to others.

Mautino won the election, with 50.5 percent.

He gave up his seat last year, when legislators appointed him to replace retiring auditor general William Holland.

In recent weeks, several reports have been published regarding Mautino's campaign expenditures.

As reported by the Capitol Fax blog, a press release issued Tuesday by Mautino's non-governmental spokesperson, stated in part:

"His campaign committee, Committee for Frank J. Mautino, fully disclosed and reported all spending by the campaign in compliance with Illinois campaign finance and disclosure laws. His reports fully detail campaign expenditures that were made to help defray the standard, reasonable expenses incurred while Frank performed the governmental and public service duties of serving as state representative of his large, mostly rural district."

Capitol Fax's Rich Miller wrote: "Mautino had one major campaign this century, in 2014. He is a major Democratic player in that area, though, so he could’ve been subsidizing other campaigns. Either way, he needs to clear this up. Right now."

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Bruce Rauner hammered away Wednesday on the need for fundamental change in the way Illinois operates, while Democratic leaders blamed Rauner for the state not yet having a budget.

Republicans, on the other hand, blamed Democratic leaders.

In his second state of the State of the State address, the governor also continued his call for property tax relief.

A leading Democrat countered, asking whether Rauner was willing to consider the idea that Illinois’ government shifts too much of the education-funding burden to the local level.

And so it went Wednesday as the first-term Republican governor and the Democrats who hold supermajorities in the General Assembly continued their battle.

While Rauner, R-Winnetka, softened his rhetoric and made pitch for conciliation, he also made clear he’s not backing away from his “Turnaround Agenda,” which he says is necessary to improve Illinois’ sorry financial condition and halt an out-migration of jobs and people.

Those agenda points include local property tax freezes coupled with “local options” for governments to cut costs by opting out of prevailing wage laws and contracting rules, as well as diminishing collective bargaining for public employees.

They also include term limits for elected state officials; independent legislative redistricting; lawsuit reform and changes to the workers’ compensation system.

While Democrats say Rauner’s programs are hostile to the working class and especially unionized labor, Rauner says it’s the state’s job to provide an environment where economic opportunities are available for everyone.

“Illinois’ existing policies were meant to help working people and the middle class but are now having just the opposite effect,” Rauner said.

“To see more people employed at high pay, we need to stop crushing employers. To create good jobs, we need more job creators,” the governor said.

Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, issued a statement after the speech commending Rauner for his willingness to work with Democrats on items including a pension reform bill.

But Cullerton also criticized Rauner for the lack of budget for fiscal year 2016, which began July 1, 2015.

“On a daily basis our safety net is unravelling, leaving disabled seniors and homeless veterans nowhere to go,” said Cullerton, D-Chicago.

“We're not honoring our student aid commitments to college students. We're not providing any public support to our public universities and colleges,” Cullerton said.

“That's all because of the stance the governor has taken over the state's budget,” Cullerton said. “He caused this. He can end it.”

The governor also focused on property tax relief, as he did often in his first year in office.

“One of the most critical ways to lower our cost of living and compete for more good jobs is to reduce our property tax burden,” he said.

“We have the second-highest property taxes in the country. They are crushing homeowners and small business owners from one end of the state to the other.”

House Democratic Leader Barbara Flynn Currie of Chicago said Rauner was over-simplifying the issue.

“Illinois property taxes are high,” she said. “They’re high because this state does not fund public education the way all the others do.

“In the average state, 40 cents of every property tax dollar goes to fund public education. In Illinois, it’s 60 cents. So, governor, if you really want to lower property taxes across Illinois, do a better job of funding public education.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said “the governor's speech did not deal with the fact there is no budget for the current fiscal year.”

Madigan said four of the items the governor mentioned as the past year’s accomplishments — record primary education spending, a solution to the fiscal year 2015 budget deficit, landmark public safety legislation and reforms to unemployment insurance — came with Democratic cooperation.

“All of these things happened with the cooperation of people in the Legislature and in each instance, please understand, the governor did not demand his program, which would lower wages for middle-class families, (lower) their standard of living and send injured workers to welfare and the emergency room.”

Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said Madigan wasn’t giving the governor enough credit.

“The governor originally asked for a large number of concessions on workers’ comp, but now they’ve backed off of that,” Syverson said. “We’re talking about simple reforms that every other state in the country has implemented.

Rauner did make a pitch for cooperation.

“To achieve a grand compromise, we must cast partisanship and ideology aside,” he said. “We must break from the politics of the past and do what is right for the long term future of our state. I’m ready – and it’s my genuine hope that you are, too.”

After the speech, rank-and-file Democrats and their legislative leaders said they would work with the governor, but he’s not going to get everything he wants and must show some movement toward compromise solutions.

Additionally, Democratic leaders disputed the GOP’s taunt that Democrats simply want a tax increase and could pass one on their own should they muster the political nerve. They say absent a deal with Republicans, the Democratic votes aren’t there.

Republican leaders said they’re standing with Rauner, and they questioned just how far Democrats have shown themselves willing to move.

“I didn’t hear one word about being willing to talk about the things governor has talked about in terms of long-term reform for this state,” said Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont.

“What I saw once again was a brick wall (or Democrats saying) ‘I’m willing to do it as along as it doesn’t affect the status quo and the people that keep me in office,’ ” she said.

St. Clair County jurors took approximately 20 minutes Wednesday afternoon to rule for the owners of The Edge in Belleville following a three-day personal injury trial.

The 2007 case was brought by a woman who wore heeled shoes and had been drinking beer before getting on a motorized rock climbing wall.

Foreperson Julie Murray said after exiting Associate Judge Randall Kelley's courtroom that there wasn't enough evidence presented to prove that owners Keith Schell and Mary Dahm were negligent for the broken kneecap plaintiff April Kassebaum sustained after jumping off the motorized wall from about three feet onto a four-inch mat on March 18, 2006.

The incident happened at around midnight while Kassebaum was attending a birthday celebration. The Edge is an entertainment venue that includes gaming and food and bar service.

Kassebaum was seeking $73,932.62 in medical expenses, plus $50,000 for past and present pain and suffering and $10,000 for loss of normal life. One of her doctors who testified by video deposition said she would need a knee replacement in the future.

In the end, Kassebaum was willing to accept 20 percent comparative fault, which would have reduced her total recommended take away to $107,146.10

Her attorney Patrick Foley had argued that the defendants were negligent for failing to warn of the rock climbing wall's dangers, failing to instruct how to use the "Fun Rock," and failing to supervise patrons using it.

The Fun Rock was designed for up to two people to use it competitively. Foley argued that signage for its use - which included warnings about not wearing heeled shoes - was only posted at the kiosk where money was dispensed, and that a second user such as Kassebaum could get on the wall without prior knowledge of those instructions.

He said during closing that had employees who were supposed to be supervising seen his client attempting to use the machine with the shoes she was wearing they wouldn't have allowed her to use it.

Throughout trial, the pair of shoes Kassebaum was wearing the night of the incident - ones with two and a half inch chunk heels - were on display on the plaintiff's table.

Foley also said that it did not matter how many beers his client had consumed that night - three, five, seven - because had there been proper supervision, and if she had appeared drunk, employees would not have let her on the wall.

During trial, plaintiff's witness Angel Tanase, Kassebaum's sister, testified that she had been with her at a St. Louis bowling alley prior to them arriving at The Edge. Tanase said Kassebaum had consumed several beers at the bowling alley. Tanase also said under cross examination that Kassebaum was "tipsy" before the rock climbing wall incident.

Foley's case also focused on spoliation of evidence.

He argued that in spite of being material to the litigation, the owners "destroyed" evidence by selling the Fun Rock in 2008 for scrap for $300. Foley questioned why owners would get rid of the machine if it was generating $1,500 per month in sales, a total they entirely kept, versus newer pieces of replacement equipment in which sales were shared with vendors.

He also raised suspicions about missing manager's logs, which he said may have reflected information about possible equipment malfunctions or other relevant matters.

But, defense attorney John Cunningham of Belleville pointed out during trial and at closing that the manager logs would not have contained information about injuries. He said they went missing during an office reorganization, and were not considered by the owners to be significant paperwork such as documents needed for tax purposes.

Cunningham said that, in fact, Kassebaum never notified owners about her injury that evening, or ever. It wasn't until three months after she was hurt that the business received a letter from an attorney regarding the incident.

He said that his clients did not sell the Fun Rock until a year and a half after Kassebaum's injury.

"It's supposed to be coincidental that we disposed of it?" Cunningham said. "No one asked to look at it.

"If they thought it was so important to look at the wall...his (Foley) office is close. They could have looked at it."

Cunningham added that the Fun Rock was used at The Edge for five years, and in that time it had been used approximately 45,000 times.

"How many got hurt? None." he said, except as alleged by Kassebaum. "How many lawsuits? You'd think they're getting sued all the time. Not true."

Foreperson Murray also said after trial that jurors took into account that "nothing" had been reported to the owners about Kassebaum's injury.

"No one knew she had fallen," Murray said.

Murray also said the case was about "personal responsibility" when "getting on with shoes like that and alcohol in your system."

Owners Schell and Dahm spoke afterwards saying they were relieved after nine years of litigation.

:"It was stressful," Schell said.

"We feel badly she was injured," he said, but that they as owners are careful to operate a "very safe" business.

"Thank God the jury followed the instructions and paid attention to the evidence, and they weren't swayed."